Further Possibilities for Linguistic Landscape Research

要旨

The study of the linguistic landscape in its own right is a relatively recent development. In sociolinguistics and applied linguistics there is a growing interest as is evident from an increasing number of publications (see Backhaus this volume for a brief overview), of individual papers and of special colloquia at conferences. There are several reasons why it can be expected that a trend for more attention will persist in the near future. In this chapter some possibilities for further study of the linguistic landscape as a means to increase understanding of multilingualism will be highlighted. In the foregoing chapters we have seen some examples of the study of the linguistic landscape in different parts of the world. We saw that although Japan is known as the prototype of a monolingual society, the linguistic landscape of Tokyo shows a surprising degree of multilingualism. Moreover, English has a high prestige there and its increasing presence in the visual scenery of the streets of Tokyo has become part of everyday Japanese life, as the study by Backhaus makes clear.

主題